35 arrested, one of them in Navarra, for introducing horse meat unfit for consumption in the market

Euskaraz irakurri: 35 atxilotu, horietako bat Nafarroan, kontsumorako egokia ez den zaldi-haragia merkaturatzea leporatuta

35 people have been arrested, one of them in Navarrafor participating in a network that introduced horse meat unfit for consumption in the commercial chain, meat without veterinary controls and from animals that were poorly fed and neglected.

The Civil Guard and Europol have dismantled the network, confiscated more than half a ton of this product ready for sale in a butcher shop in Valencia and discovered in this community the cattle farm where a hundred horses were mistreated.

Those responsible for the Central Operating Unit for the Environment of Seprona of the Civil Guard and Europol for environmental crimes, together with the deputy director of Livestock and Agriculture of the Generalitat Valenciana, reported this Thursday on the Yucatan operation, in which they are investigating a six companies and in which a con ramification of the organization has been uncovered in Belgium, where six people have been arrested.

The epicenter of the plot was a cattle farm in the province of Valencia that had been operating clandestinely since 2019 when the entry and exit of horses were restricted.

In charge of this farm was the main person in charge of the plot, a great connoisseur of the equine world and who was dedicated to buying riding horses throughout Spain that were no longer used to fatten them on his farm with the sole objective of obtaining economic returns with his meat.

This has been explained by the captain of the Civil Guard José Carlos Martínez Moreno, who has detailed that a horse already useless for riding could cost only 100 euros, while the volume of business is estimated at more than 4.5 million euros.

All police officials have warned that the type of meat discovered was a danger to public health, since these horses have not been cared for, fed or medicated to be slaughtered like those that are destined for the food chain.

In fact, Martínez has recounted the poor conditions of malnutrition and medical neglect in which 80 equines were found when the agents searched the farm, to the point that one animal had to be subjected to immediate euthanasia.

The modus operandi that the person in charge of the operation followed to introduce the illegal horse meat had the collaboration of veterinarians and transporters, since they also exported horses in terrible conditions to Italy, Germany or Belgiuma country where the consumption of this meat is more common than in Spain.